Autopsies in Poland 1971-2023

Abstract

Autopsies, depending on their purpose, can be described as forensic or clinical. Both types are intended to determine the cause of death, but their goal is different. For forensic autopsies, this goal is to provide expertise with evidential value in various legal proceedings. For clinical autopsies, they have historically been seen as a tool in the development and investigation of disease processes. The aim of the study was to determine how the percentage of autopsies changed in Poland in the years 1971-2023. Research material was data obtained from the Polish Central Statistical Office. On the basis of this data, we showed changes in the population number, the number of deaths, and the number of autopsies in the indicated period. It was shown that in Poland, the percentage of autopsies in relation to all deaths in the period from 1971 to 2023 (53 years) fell about 4-fold from the initial level of approximately 16% to only approximately 4% now. This downward trend is consistent with the trends in other EU countries.

Keywords

Clinical autopsy / Forensic autopsy / Cause of death / Percentage of autopsies

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, A.S. and J.B.; Methodology, A.S. and J.B.; Investigation, A.S. and J.B.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, A.S. and J.B.; Writing—Review & Editing, A.S. and J.B.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

All data can be freely available upon request to the corresponding author.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

[1] Knudsen PJT, Thomsen JL. Autopsy. In Handbook of Forensic Medicine, 2nd ed.; Madea B, Ed.; Wiley: Chichester, UK, 2022; Volume 1, pp. 183-194.

[2] Smędra A, Berent J. Medico-legal death investigation systems—Poland. Sri Lanka J. Forensic Med. Sci. Law 2022, 13, 43-46. doi:10.4038/sljfmsl.v13i0.7920.

[3] The Polish Code of Criminal Procedure of 6 June 1997,Consolidated Text, Journal of Laws of 2021, Item 534, Later Amended. Available online: https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU19970890555/U/D19970555Lj.pdf (accessed on 28 December 2024).

[4] Smędra A, Wochna K, Berent J. Forensic autopsies during COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Sri Lanka J. Forensic Med. Sci. Law 2024, 15, 58-62. doi:10.4038/sljfmsl.v15i2.8003.

[5] The Polish Act on Medical Activity of 15 April 2011, Consolidated Text, Journal of Laws of 2024, Item 799. Available online: https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU20111120654/U/D20110654Lj.pdf (accessed on 28 December 2024).

[6] The Polish Act on Preventing and Combating Infections and Infectious Diseases in Humans of 5 December 2008, Consolidated Text, Journal of Laws of 2024, Item 924. Available online: https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU20082341570/U/D20081570Lj.pdf (accessed on 28 December 2024).

[7] WHO Autopsy Rate (%) for All Deaths. Available online: https://gateway.euro.who.int/en/indicators/hfa_545-6410-autopsy-rate-for-all-deaths/#id=19640 (assessed 28 December 2024).

[8] The Polish Central Statistical Office. Available online: https://stat.gov.pl/ (accessed on 28 December 2024).

[9] Mid-20th Century Baby Boom. Available online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-20th_century_baby_boom (accessed on 28 December 2024).

[10] Shojania KG, Burton EC. The vanishing nonforensic autopsy. N. Engl. J. Med. 2008, 358, 873-875. doi:10.1056/NEJMp0707996.

[11] Kunz SN, Bergsdóttir Þ Jónasson JG. Autopsy rates in Iceland. Scand. J. Public Health 2020, 48, 486-490. doi:10.1177/1403494818820748.

[12] Herath JC, Herath UR. Are invasive postmortem examinations still the ‘gold standard’ in diagnosing the cause of death? Sri Lanka J. Forensic Med. Sci. Law 2024, 15, 34-42. doi:10.4038/sljfmsl.v15i1.7970.